


Roads in Our Shoes

by threeanatomies (littlepocketbattleship)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-14 10:16:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3406958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlepocketbattleship/pseuds/threeanatomies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bookshop AU, Dan and Phil meet in a bookshop during their university years</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The smell is the best thing, in Dan’s opinion. It smells like home, like his granddad’s study, like the place he went to with school, where they were invited, encouraged to touch books, to read them and coax stories out of them.

It smells like paper and glue and the smell of ink that stings a little, like something slowly decomposing, but also calming, woody, old and homely.  
He touches spines, covers touching each other, shelves almost bursting with knowledge, stories, poetry, lets his fingers glide over leather bound volumes and cheap soft covers. Dan should be doing research for one of his overdue papers, in the uni’s own library. Instead he is here, doing nothing, staring at books, trying to find out why he made the choices he made in his life.

Sometimes he chooses a book to get, Sometimes he just sticks around for an hour or a half, for the smell, the atmosphere, of the bookshop. There’s never too many people here, always some, enough to keep the tiny place going, apparently. 

Whenever he feels like the pressure he makes himself is too much, or he feels that the walls of his room close in on him, he escapes. Comes here, to the bookshop, a tiny place hidden in plain sight, but not attracting a lot of attention, due to its unspectacular façade and the lack of bright bestsellers in the equally tiny shop window.

Dan physically relaxes once he opens the door, immediately breathing in deeper, as everything around him seems to fade and all edges go soft in the dim light.

~

They often run into each other. Phil usually mumbles a quick ‘hello’ at the brown haired boy who crosses his path every so often, between stacks and stacks of books. The guy usually just nods, and that’s okay with Phil. They have a telepathically agreed that they share this, a greeting and a nod, nothing more and nothing less.

They fail sometimes. Occasionally, Dan’s head would snap up, looking up from the back of the book he had been reading, eyes lit.

They hold eye contact for some seconds, both either too shy or too awkward to keep staring or stop entirely, waiting for the other person to do something.  
Eventually, the awkwardness of the embarrassment would win over the shyness, and one of them would look away, leaving the book shop soon after, but not obviously so.


	2. Chapter 2

Phil comes back to the bookshop all the time, hoping to find new books to read and exchange glances with the boy that seems so lost in his own world, or at least in his own head.  
Phil opens the door with the old-fashioned bell on it, and scans the room for a familiar shock of brown hair.

If he sees him, sitting on a chair, reading, or studying, head buried in books and papers and charts, Phil's brain automatically generates an excuse not to talk to him: He has to be home, he has a dentist's appointment, his voice is all rough and strange because he has a cold, he hasnt looked in the mirror that morning, his contact lenses hate him that day and he looks like he spends his time crying, and so on. He wants to start a conversation, he really wants to, but there's always something holding him back - embarassment? Self-consciousness? General introversion? Anxiety to find out that the guy doesnt want to talk to him?

Phil sighs, and proceeds to try to find a book, read the back, and steal glances that travel across the room and more often than not hit the back of Dan's head. Dan, who is sitting in one of the old sofa chairs, visibly relaxed although he almost has to fold his long limbs, his shoes on the floor next to a dark bag, face slack, but eyes seemingly focused on a thin book that looks ridiculously tiny in his big hands.

Phil notices himself staring. Well, the guy is not going to look up anytime soon, is he? There's not a lot of people in the shop, and nobody pays attention to Phil, so why stop when he can study this boy head to toe, watching how he turns a page and bites his lip in anticipation of what he's reading.

Okay, it's getting creepy now. Phil wills himself to let go and turn around, heading towards the door. As he puts his head on the doorknob, he realises he still has a book in his hands, unpaid, so he stops dead and whips around again, almost running into an older man as he walks toward the counter. 

'I'm so sorry, I almost forgot to pay, sorry, I don't usually do that-'

'It's okay', the woman behind the counter says, 'It's not like you have never been here and I couldn't describe your face to the police the next time you actually steal a 5-pound book'. She smiles warmly. It goes perfectly with the whole atmosphere of the book shop, but that feelong of homeliness and calm is lost on Phil right now.

'Um, thanks, sorry again. Bye. Have a good day'

She gives him a little wave. Phil awkwardly lifts his hand. At this point, he just wants to get out before there's more embarassing and / or awkward things happening, so he shoves the book in his bag (gently). He can't help but shoot another glance at the brown haired mystery guy on the chair. Turns out that was a mistake. 

He can't look away. Again. But he pushes the door open, skin flushing, and runs.

Phil tries to convince himself that the panic he felt in that moment was not mirrored on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who'd have thought! i actually wrote another chapter of this and i'm gonna write more (:  
> please comment, i'd appreciate your feedback!


End file.
